Foto VI, German Gomez, Yo, tu, el, ella, nosotros, nosotras

Diversity Begins within One Self

The Cultural Center of Spain in Santo Domingo (CCE) hosted the exposition “Diversity: the difference as a definition.” during the Photoimage Festival 2010.  Eight of Spain’s most prominent photographers were part of the exposition.

By: CCE

You look outside and instantly recognize what is different, that which is distinct from us. The registry can be endless: race, gender, sexual orientation, age, height, weight, dress, social class, etc. The glaze traces its classifying destiny as it awards labels which go according to the similarities or dissimilarities of the other, because we are the starting point, the premise, the basic point of reference from which we attempt to decipher the world that surrounds us. Nonetheless, by doing this we usually ignore an undeniable truth: diversity does not begin outside but inside ourselves.

The approach taken by Rosa Olivares, the originator and curator of Diversity: the difference as a definition, which was exhibited at the Cultural Center of Spain in Santo Domingo at the Photoimage Festival 2010 – is not only vital but also indispensable. This is so because when we perceive variety as the exception rather than the rule prejudice, frictions and confrontations are generated and this bring many to the understanding that the answer to the who we are can be previously determined by the how we are.

However, reality tells us the opposite: variety is the rule, not the exception. Diversity is what defines us. And understanding this allows us to create places of encounter where the uniqueness of each person and each thing is not a motive for disagreements but for concurrences.  Furthermore, it is through common areas where we admit that beneath it all, despite the differences, we are not as different as it seems. Rosa Olivares points out    - “Science tells us that only a few small cells differentiate us humans not from monkeys or gorillas, with whom we are almost sure of the relationship, but from pigs and rats. Despite the appearances, our DNA is not as different as we might think. “

With such a clear and well acknowledged concept,  the commission of the exhibition used Diversity: the difference as a definition as a leitmotif  to gather eight of Spain’s most recognized photographers: Carmela García, Amparo Garrido, Gómez Germain, Ali Hanoon, Jesus Micó , Tanit Plana, Miguel Trillo and Jesus Ubera. “This exhibition pretends to face, visualize some of these basic differences and leave evidence of an equal and global diversity which reveals that regardless of our differences we are all akin” says Olivares.

Consequently the conducting thread of the exhibition is therefore an issue that has been present in the art field for a long time, it has been and will remain a concern for many artists: the interest in reconciling the differences, in addressing the fears it generates and in questioning their prejudices is intrinsic for the search, for the desire to recognize a meaning to life and to manifold ways in which it is manifested.

As the commissioner of the exhibition explains-“the representation of different races had obtained a range of categories in both painting and sculpture and of course in texts and research as well.  Nonetheless, differences in age and illness have also been represented but to a lesser extent.  Photography has especificly been the plastic language that has worked with greater systematicness and profundity on the study of difference without taking the idea of diversity as a reason, but by studying diversity, the individual differences in each case. “

“It is through this manner that”, as Olivares said, “photography has served to deepen racism in the social criticism; it is through working on the topics of the visual representation of race. For example, artist like Carrie Mae Weems, Lorna Simpson, Glenn Ligon, Adrian Piper, among others, have clearly outline the representation of homosexuality and a variety of gender formulations through photographic images and videos” – Here she alludes to Zoe Leonard, Claude Cahun, and Catherine Opie.

Olivares says- “To a lesser degree, and within the boundaries of art and science , photography has been dedicating itself to categorizing social groups with diseases or deformities. And with great depth and breadth, it has also addressed different age groups, especially children, a subject that through history has been especially dear to many artists, especially to photographers.

In the exposition, Diversity: the differences as a definition, a small group of artists have developed several lines of study on differences through photographic art. An example of this is situated in Spain, these works represent proof that the interest in differences is currently playing a role within the grounds of artwork. The photographer’s interest in showing the world around them with a realistic and yet symbolic form, gives light to the work of these artists that build paradoxical worlds from the perspective of a difficult reality, happy and even sad at times, accompanied as well as solitary. They build worlds in which the differences impact the relationships with others and with oneself.

The Artists
As it ends, this exhibition sheds light on the difference, on diversity, on the need to differentiate ourselves; as Oliviares says, “the need to be ourselves in a crowd while at the same time being just one more of the crowd, just like all the others.”  In the words of its commissioner, on one hand the exhibition reveals the need to belong, and on the other hand the need of being unique. This goal is accomplished through eight artists, through eight particular and distinctive ways of addressing this issue.

Through the following, Rosa Olivares explains the exhibition through the work of each participant.

Carmela Garcia: “The woman is the backbone in the work of Carmela García: the woman alone, with a couple or in a group. This artist from Lanzarote instills an inner and personal appearance in the midst of a world where the figure of women has partly been built through the eyes of the man. On this occasion her images focus on portraits of women (and only one man) whom embody some foreign and genetic personalities (gently intuited, never mentioned: the spy, painter, poet ….)”

Amparo Garrido: “For a while, the artist dedicated herself to visiting the gorillas that live in the Madrid Zoo. Every day, at the same time and with similar clothes and colors, the photographer would lie against the bulletproof glass that insulates the gorilla’s habitat to public access. She went every day, at the same time, until she realized that she had established a visual relationship with the gorillas, especially with the males in the group who waited every day for her and fixedly stared at her. These portraits are the result of this strange as well as deep relationship. “

German Gómez: “Between 1992 and 2001 German Gomez dedicated himself to take pictures of children whom he taught at a Special Education Center in Madrid.  It was with these pictures with which he formed the series Yo, tú, él, ella, nosotros, nosotras, vosotros, vosotras, ellos y ellas (Me, you, him, her, us, you). Portraits of children and adolescents who are shown as they are, quite innocent in a strange world, we can hardly see their deficiencies, but are people who may not have a life that society defines as normal: affected with autism, Down syndrome and various diseases. Some of them died during the years in which the photographer was working with them. However, in these pictures the magic of love and innocence causes the most disturbing effect of all. They appear beautiful, cheerful, a beauty that goes beyond normal.  It is unclear if it is the perspective of the photographer, the spectator or maybe it is the only true reality, we only know that once again the concepts of beauty and normality is brought to pieces before our eyes. “

Ali Hanoon: “A person, only one, poses for the artist in the middle of the street, in the middle of the crowd while being itself isolated. We’re not sure but something in these images tells us that this person should not be there. This is the series The Man of the Crowd, it focuses on two civilizations which have been apart from each other for centuries, Japan and the United States. However, these images portray globalization, a form of making us the same on the outside and covering the differences that persist, images that could be taken in any big city, New York, Tokyo, perhaps Madrid. Does sharing the same sportswear with the same letters of universities, parks and similar avenues … make us more equal? “.

Mico Jesus’ Torso, back, legs, sex, faces, heads, dozens of people who publicly show their physical differences which through their body define what is diversity and difference. It also shows what defines them, the features which within the genus that groups them also differences them.  Mico presents the work in groups of polyptychs in which he groups the different images according to the part of the body, always in highly contrasted black and white; hieratic figures, posing for the photographer who presents the images from a perspective that associates more with biology and science than the symbolic representation that characterizes art. “

Tanit Plana: “The study of the differences is the center of the first work of this young Catalan photographer. She works on universal aspects such as death, old age and the intervention of technology to alter bodily functions: prostheses of all types which complement our deterioration or imperfections. An intimate documentary that targets our close relationships (grandparents, parents, ourselves) and that makes of the place the actual epicenter of the entire work. “

Miguel Trillo, “The entire work of Miguel Trillo is a vast categorization of typologies. He portrays trips to distant countries, faces, shapes and different occupations, but when this universal catalog becomes inexpandable, there comes a time when such differences become equal. In this series, which is part of this exhibition, we have chosen some pictures taken in Havana Cuba. A catalogue of misery and hidden differences but at the sight of all: transvestites, transsexuals, men who have chosen the opposite sex to finish creating a third. “

Ubera Jesus: “The only thing that makes us equal, where we all look alike is in what we feel. The pain, love, loneliness, fear … the feelings that we face with our deepest sensations, alone in that territory where no one can really help and understanding is scarce. With the help of professional actors Jesus Ubera reconstructed real stories of love, maternal love, passionate love, sadness, hatred, farewells and reunions. Through fragmented rhythms he makes an incomplete film, as in the stills of a movie that is so known that it has become vulgar.”